1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of sterilizing male anthers in plants, especially in plants of small grain cereal crops, and to a composition therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To obtain high-yielding hybrid seeds, seed-breeders cross-pollinate carefully selected parents, an operation which is very time-consuming and requires highly-skilled staff especially in the case of small-grain cereals which have hermaphroditic flowers and normally self-pollinate. Generally speaking a small-grain cereal hybrid can only be obtained if self-pollination is completely avoided and in practice this is achieved by removing the male anthers from the cereal flowers by hand. Accordingly, if the flowers could be treated in such a way that the male anthers were sterilized without affecting female fertility, then this would represent a considerable advance in the seed-breeding industry.
The Applicant has now found a group of heterocyclic compounds which when applied to plants, and especially to small-grain cereal crops selectively sterilize the male anthers.